Police credited hard work by the city's officers and innovative use of crime-fighting techniques for the drop from 6,870 reported incidents of crime in 1998 to 5,918 last year. Officials weren't sure why reports of purse snatchings and thefts from buildings increased.

The overall decreases in crime mirror national trends that began seven years ago.

Homicides remained unchanged in the city at 3. Robberies fell by 17.7 percent, from 175 to 144. Aggravated assault also dropped 17.7 percent, from 378 to 311.

Vehicle thefts fell by 30.9 percent, from 804 to 555, according to the department's statistics.

Immler credited community policing programs and aggressive patrolling for the decreases.

"One of the constant struggles in police work is putting your police where crimes occur and trying to get them there before the crime occurs," Immler said. "I would say over the past year we got a little better."

Immler said the department has assigned extra patrols from a specialized unit to high-crime areas, which has had significant effects.

"Those [officers] are out there and I think they have had an impact on [preventing] crime," he said. " They are very visible. People see them. They take away the possible opportunity to commit a crime."

Some less serious crimes also fell last year. Theft of bicycles dropped 19.6 percent last year, from 153 in 1998 to 123 last year. While drug runners account for some of those bicycle thefts, youths are responsible for a large number, police said.

"A lot of your bike thefts are taken from screened patios," said Lt. Carl Miller, who commands the afternoon shift. "And a lot of them are kids walking home from school, too darn lazy to walk and see a bike, so they take it."

Police said with fewer robberies, there is a domino effect in other crime statistics. Many violent crimes drop, too, because there are fewer violent confrontations. Because there are fewer robberies, there are also fewer stolen cars, since robbers prefer to be in stolen cars when they commit a crime, police said. Burglaries also fell slightly last year, by 3.5 percent, from 792 to 764.

Police also said they cracked down harder on drugs, yielding a 7.5 percent increase in reported crimes, from 438 to 471.

One local merchant finds the news promising.

"My hats off to the police chief and the residents," said Paul Raffa, a member of the Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce and fast-food restaurant owner. "They do a lot of work with the young people and the youth groups.

"I think some of the programs keep the kids occupied so they are not getting into trouble," he said.

C. Ron Allen can be reached at crallen@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6611.